Tuesday, March 10, 2009

False Compassion

One thing you can say about liberals, is they prefer form over substance. Ask any liberal what they think about global warming, or feeding the hungry, or stopping the violence in Darfur, and they'll tell you not what they think but what they feel. Then ask them what they're doing about these causes about which they feel so strongly, and you will no doubt hear some feel-good pablum that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny at all.

Giving homeless people a "hobo condo" is one such ridiculous idea. Oh, how good you can feel about yourself by creating a tent-on-a-grocery-cart as you drive the Bentley back to the Malibu estate.

"At least it's something", the liberals will claim. And indeed it is, but what? Does a hobo condo help a homeless person get a real place to live, or a job, or an education by which they can improve themselves? No, it keeps the rain off (and I understand why the homeless appreciate that, as would I if I were on the streets), but is it genuine compassion?

As a conservative I prefer offering a "hand up" rather than a "handout".

Once again, the silly generalisations. You want to know what I think about global warming? I think it is a well supported scientific theory that is amply presented in the scientific journals.Of course, if you want to imagine that the journals are filled with nothing but "feelings" then you are welcome to do so.

What you think is that it's an exciting opportunity to display your moral and intellectual superiority.

Moral superiority because you can look beyond mundane pecuniary considerations to an all-embracing stewardship of the planet and intellectual superiority because you've decided that believing in the unproven cause-effect relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming is evidence of a degree of insightfulness that elevates you above "the masses".

By the way, I notice that it's becoming much more common to refer to those who are skeptical of anthropogenic global warming as "deniers". Since this is a clear reference to Holocaust deniers I believe this means that supporters of anthropogenic global warming are have contravened Godwin's Law, i.e. you lose.